Kratoa Place and Bench

At the intersection between St George’s Mall and Castle St, was once a beautiful mosaic bench installed in honour of Kratoa or Eva of the Goringhaikona tribe. Born in 1642 the young Krotoa was taken under the wing of Jan van Riebeeck and his wife Maria and taught to speak Dutch. She went on to become an unofficial interpreter for the colonists. Later she married explorer Pieter van Meerhof who was subsequently murdered in Madagascar. Alone in Cape Town with her three children Kratoa fell into ‘an immoral and dissolute’ life and was banished to incarceration on Robben Island. She died in 1674 a broken soul. Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille unveiled the bench, itself one of many designed and created by Rock Girl, a grassroots movement founded by US born India Baird to inspire, encourage and promote girls and women in dangerous and challenged areas creating ‘safe spaces’ in and around the CBD. Sadly in 2015 Khoisan activists destroyed the bench not wanting people to sit on the image of their heroine.